Friday, 24 June 2011

21st Century Hampshire Top Twenties: 2004/2005

The glowing Spitfire attached to Eastleigh's stand (previously to be found on a bandstand in the town).

With the average age of a Premiership season ticket holder now being around 44, more than half of Pompey's regular supporters had never known their club to finish above Saints in their lifetime. However, it happened at last this season, as Agent Redknapp took the team in stripes down to the Championship in bottom place. Unbridled joy in the blue half of Hampshire; misery and suchlike in the red-and-white portion. Other notable performances in 2004/05 included Eastleigh's promotion to the newly-formed Conference South, and Lymington & New Milton's Wessex League championship, which saw them promoted to the Isthmian League. With restructuring in the non-league arena, the Wessex and Combined Counties Leagues found themselves at the same overall level for the first time, with the Southern, Isthmian and Wessex Leagues dropping a level to make way for the new Conference feeder leagues.

As a reminder, the numbers following the club names in the ranking table refer to their league's overall level in the English pyramid, followed by the club's position within that league. Hence, Pompey were at overall level 1 (Premiership), and they finished 16th.

Hampshire Top Twenty rankings, 2004/2005:

1. (2) Portsmouth 1/16

2. (1) Southampton 1/20

3. (3) Aldershot Town 5/4

4. (4) Farnborough Town 5/20

5. (6) Basingstoke Town 6/6

6. (5) Havant & Waterlooville 6/13

7. (7) Eastleigh 7/3

8. (8) Bashley 8/14

9. (9) Fleet Town 8/19

10. (12) Lymington & New Milton 9/1

11. (10) Winchester City 9/2

12. (11) Gosport Borough 9/4

13. (13) Andover 9/5

14. (15) AFC Totton 9/8

15. (18) BAT Sports 9/9

16. (19) Moneyfields 9/10

17. (NE) VT FC 9/12

18. (14) Fareham Town 9/16

19. (16) Brockenhurst 9/18

20. (20) Alton Town 9/19

The new entry this time was VT FC, the works team of Vosper Thorneycroft in Southampton. They replaced their neighbours, Hamble ASSC (coincidentally, another works-sponsored club).